Listen, if you have the time and the passion to lovingly tend to a wood or coal fire, keeping the heat and smoke output just right as you low and slow smoke a rack of ribs, a whole turkey, or a slab of brisket to tender, savory perfection, you do your thing. Old school pit-style smoking yields some of the finest foods you’ll ever taste, after all.
But… here’s the thing: an automatically controlled pellet smoker that maintains a pre-programmed temperature and feeds in wood pellets as needed, keeping the heat and smoke flow in perfect balance while being entirely hands-off for the chef? That delivers some of the finest foods you’ll ever taste, too. I know because while I love some low and slow-cooked meats, I don’t have time for the classic hands-on approach, so I’ve turned to an auto pellet smoker myself.
The Z Grills Flagship 700D4E Pellet Grill & Smoker is a large, commanding piece of hardware that can accommodate whole birds (a single turkey or two or three chickens), two full racks of ribs, two dozen burgers, a good 40 to 50 hotdogs or sausages, and so on. It’s got a lot of cooking space—500 square inches of primary cook space and nearly 200 more on the top rack are the specifics.